We had an almost perfect day today, for our first big excursion on our own sailing to Poole. A short weekend to trial everything out before we leave completely. we need to wait for our aussie shipment to arrive so rather than stay in the marina and watch everyone else sail, we thought a little 20mile trip to Poole would be just perfect. Leaving Lymington we worked our way out the harbour and past the IOW ferry intermingled with the little sailing dinghies. I’m still not used to manoeuvring such a big boat amongst a busy harbour so its a slightly heart pounding feeling. Thankfully we have a big bow thruster and powerful engine so just when I think we cant go somewhere Osprey just does it, almost of her own will.
The breeze was a gentle 15knots, perfect for those nervous nellies onboard. It took us almost an hour to get the mainsail up. Heavens to Betsy this has got to get easier as we just cant be this slow for ever.
We played around with some sail settings and ran down at 8knts plus current. This boat is no slouch, she’s so steady to sail. I have to keep looking at the log as I can’t believe the speed we get at times. When we went to put the anchor down it was much shallower than I would have liked for our first attempt, with only 2m under the keel. I hunted around for a deeper pool to no avail, then I discovered how quickly it goes to zero and we tested the depth sounders accuracy for sure. thankfully its all soft mud and we slid into and out of the first shallow spot easily.
time for dinner and \chilli con carne was on the menu tonight, weve reminded ourselves here of some great recipes we havent had for years |Chilli being one of them. so theres plenty in the freeser now for the next time.